Karachi: Former Sindh chief minister and provincial governor, Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, died after a protracted illness on Sunday. He was 88.
Bhutto was under treatment at a privately run hospital in Karachi.
He was the cousin of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) and uncle of former PM Benazir Bhutto.
He was one of the founding members of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1967 and remained associated with the party till 1988.
Mumtaz Ali Bhutto served as the 8th governor of the province and later as 13th Sindh CM in early 70s. He also later became a federal minister. Bhutto also served as the caretaker Sindh CM in the 1990s.
He remained in self-exile in London after the hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in a controversial criminal case in 1979.
He founded his own political party, Sindh National Front (SNF), in Hyderabad in 1989.
He remained a steadfast supporter for the cause of provincial autonomy as enshrined in the Pakistan Resolution of 1940. He was one of leading figures of Sindhi nationalist politics.
In 2017, Bhutto announced the merger of SNF with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf that is now the ruling party of the country.
Before 2013 general elections, he had announced the merger of SNF with Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz). But in 2014, Bhutto declared that he and his son had been expelled from the PML(N).
His funeral prayers and burial will take place in his hometown Larkana in Sindh.
He is survived by four children, including two sons, and his wife. One of his sons, Ameer Bakhsh Bhutto, is now a leader of the PTI.
Leaders from across the country, including Prime Minister Imran Khan, condoled his death and termed it an irreparable loss.
